Solid GroundMy family took my voice long before any sea-witch offered. The song that reached their ears from my lips was their own.

If the ocean was my oyster, I a pearl from a grain of sand, then my world was no larger than the margins of that speckled shell.

Age equaled freedomfive sisters equaled five years biding time amongst the barnacles.

But every crumb of gossipcollected from theirtabledid not prepare me for anything.

The sky as wide as childhood crushing down on the roof of my ocean, the rough grain of wind across my salt-smoothed cheek and the queer vessels of men which move only forward, only back and I marveled at their lack of dimensions.

They will say it was the prince that stole me away from my watery home.